ARIA - A Dark and Lonely Place
by davidarlington01
Summary: ARIA discovers much on what appears to be a simple scouting mission for the Planeswalkers.


**A Dark and Lonely Place**

In a dark and lonely dimension, a dark and lonely planetoid drifted and tumbled through dark and lonely space. It had been on its path undisturbed for time now forgotten. For the first time in millennia, something new was now happening. Just above its rocky surface, a shimmering rip in time and space appeared, and a bright silver humanoid form emerged into this dark void.

Trans-dimensional mobile combat platform ARIA touched down lightly on the surface, her boots sending up small puffs of dust as she landed. Her external sensors could read the coldness of this place, and she shivered. She knew there was no real reason mechanically for her to be shivering. It was just a vestigial reflex action from a lifetime of memories she couldn't forget but had never actually lived herself. Every time it happened, she swore she would have better control next time. She hadn't succeeded yet.

Her gaze swept over the limited landscape, this planetoid was not very large. She was scanning in all wavelengths, visible and invisible. The Planestalkers had sent her here because they had detected some kind of anomaly where none should have existed. Of course, they had sent her. Whenever there was a mission to the most bleak and desolate and isolated areas in existence, they chose her. Of course, this was of her own choosing, she couldn't blame them.

She jetted to a few feet above the ground and started moving forward, still scanning using her pan-dimensional oculus. So far, nothing. She didn't think this task was going to take her very long. There couldn't be anything in this place.

As she floated along doing her reconnaissance, part of her processing was devoted to thinking of the world of Indines. It was never lonely or bleak there. But she couldn't go back there. After she had helped Runika defeat the evil machinations of Byron Kane and save Indines, she couldn't leave to join the Planestalkers fast enough. Runika had begged her to stay and work with her. She had even more recently entreated her to return now that the Underground was opening up and explorers and scouts were needed more than ever.

She was just so uncomfortable there. She always felt everyone was looking at her and judging her. She felt everyone either expected her to live the life of her memories that weren't hers to own and become more human, or they saw her as just a soulless mechanical automaton, a clockwork contraption like Cadenza or one of Runika's suits. Instead, she let the Planestalkers send her to the furthest reaches of the multiverse, far from any expectations or judgement.

If she had been just a mechanical automation not prone to personal introspection, then perhaps she wouldn't have been caught as much by surprise as she was by the huge thing bursting free from the ground behind her with a cacophonous screeching. As it was, it wasn't a total surprise as her innate speed and marvelous computing power allowed her to quickly turn to face and assess the nature of the encounter before her in a microseconds time.

This must have been why the Planestalkers had sent her, the anomaly they were curious about. But looking at it, she was wondering what she was supposed to do now she had found it. It was very large, and in some sense of universal mockery, it was part biological and part mechanical, just as she perceived herself to be. But this creature or construction seemed to have no logical sense about it. It had a cylindrical fur-covered body with all kinds of snaking mechanical appendages writhing about it, each ending in some kind of device she couldn't even process the purpose of. Its head or what she assumed was the entity's head, looked to her like some kind of upside down serving bowl and it was rotating and gyrating wildly. She wasn't even sure it was aware of her presence until one of the extensible arms swung out and knocked her right out of the air.

That DID catch her by surprise as she hit the dirt on her backside and she just barely rolled out of the way as another arm came swinging in at her, some kind of electrical charge arcing out of the metal piece at the end. She punched a couple buttons on her wrist, time to warp in a few of her combat droids to help bail her out of this dangerous situation she had suddenly found herself in. There was the same shimmer in reality as had happened when she had appeared herself, but then nothing! No droids appeared! What was going on? Where were her droids?

In the brief time it took her to realize her droids were not going to appear to assist her, she felt something grabbing her arm. All kinds of internal alarms started going off, her power levels were dropping quickly. This thing was draining her power! Then she felt something she knew was hers and hers alone, not someone else's memories, not some computer program. She felt fear and it was all hers. She panicked and swatted the arm away that was gripping her and she scrambled to put some distance between her and this "anomaly". It was right behind her, appendage after appendage striking out at her, most missing, but more and more connecting now. She didn't want to find out what the other devices did.

What was she going to do? She didn't have her droids. There was no one here to help her. She didn't have the power or weaponry by herself to defeat this thing in a direct confrontation. She put every effort into every kind of evasive maneuver she could think of, but it was closing off all her avenues of escape. She was going to have her existence cease here in this place and no one would ever know.

Then, she heard a voice in her head. She knew the voice even though she had never heard it before. "ARIA. Listen to me. You don't need your droids. You don't need me. You don't need the approval of others. You have the power, strength and intelligence within you to deal with this. DO IT! NOW! Find yourself."

Trans-dimensional mobile combat platform ARIA thought at first that this was just some glitch in her programming being caused by the attacks on her systems, but then she had a spontaneous creative idea that could not have been programmed into her. Instead of further retreat, she used the one advantage she DID have and used her speed to turn back and approach the deadly creature at her fastest speed. Weaving in and out through the winding, twisting arms of the beast-thing, she found the one she was looking for and grabbed it on her way. Taking the energy draining arm that had almost knocked her offline for good, she took the direct approach and shoved that arm right up the thing's bowl-like head. Bowl-head lit up like an Adjenna fire-belch and spun and twisted even wilder than before.

Almost immediately the arms that had been chasing her were thrashing about wildly and aimlessly. She didn't know how or why she knew that what she did would actually work, but work it did as the thing exploded behind her as she shot on by.

A millisecond or two after the explosion, the space above the planetoid shimmered again and her Magnetron and Turret droid popped into existence. She laughed. "Nice timing." Then she realized that that laugh was all hers as well. She realized she had learned something today.

She would turn in her report (and what was left of this thing) to her superiors at the Planestalkers. Then she was going to take some time off. It was time for her to go back to Indines. Let them think what they would of her. She truly was her own person now. Time to leave these dark and lonely places to those that still needed them.


End file.
